Pickers are used in agricultural harvesting to separate the fruits of plants from the other parts of the plants. Such pickers generally have two picking rolls, between which the plant stem is pulled in. Occasionally only one picking roll is used, which cooperates with a fixed wall. The picking roll or rolls pull the plants through a picking gap, whose dimensions are narrower than the fruit. Because of this, the fruit, for example, a corn cob, is separated from the rest of the plant and can be processed separately.
In the corn picker disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,571,865 A, plant stems are gathered by a chain conveyor having carriers which draw the stems into and through the picking gap. A feed auger is arranged on the side of the picking gap opposite and above the chain conveyor. The feed auger is the first moving part of the picker that comes in contact with the corn stems. Its purpose is to convey the stems uniformly to the site at which the stems come in contact with rotating blades acting as picking rolls. The feed auger also ends at roughly this site. U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,062 A discloses a corn picker in which a feed auger is arranged above the picking rolls. It conveys plant stems into and through the picking gap. It also transports the picked fruits away. On the side of the picking gap opposite from the feed auger, a lower gathering wheel is located at the inlet beneath the picking gap. An upper gathering wheel is arranged coaxially to the lower gathering wheel above the feed auger. The gathering wheels are used to convey the plants into the picking gap.
A corn harvester attachment device for a self-propelled harvesting machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,443. The device mows the plants standing on a field, independently of the row, and picks the corn cobs from the plants. The device comprises a rotating conveying disc provided with recesses and a rotating blade located beneath the conveying disc. The plants are fed to conventional picking units mounted downstream of the mower. Clean-out disks or tips of picking rolls that extend into the rolling circle of the mower are provided in order to remove the plants being processed from the mower and introduce them to the picking unit. The separated cobs of the plants are transported through two chain conveyors arranged above the picking gap. A drawback here is considered to be the fact that the transfer of ripe, soft stems into the picking unit can be problematical. In the U.S. published patent application Ser. No. 2002/0014064, a gathering and picking device for picking of stem-like plants is described in which the plants are brought into a picking gap by a gathering element rotating around a roughly vertical axis. At the inlet of the picking gap, two feed elements are provided in the form of feed augers, one of which is arranged above the picking gap and the other beneath it. The two feeders are arranged on the side of the picking gap opposite the gathering element and have the same feed speeds. The upper gathering element prevents especially ripened, soft plants from kinking at the input to the picking gap, at which they are deflected rearward at a relatively acute angle. Owing to the same feed speeds of the two feeders, the plant remains in a vertical position.